LYNCHBURG, Va. (CNN) – A Virginia teenager used change to pay for his lunch bill which led to a social media shaming on the restaurant’s Facebook page.
Cohen Naulty, 17, said he used the tips he earned a Country Kitchen server to treat his friends to lunch at Beer 88 in Lynchburg. Naulty paid for the $45 tab and a $10 tip with a $20 bill and mostly coins.
The restaurant posted a photo of his bill and the money he left on their Facebook page with the caption, “We’ll just caption this… “How NOT to pay at a restaurant”, cause that’s the nicest thing we can think to say about this ridiculousness.” The restaurant also used the hashtags: “#wearebeer88notcoinstar,” “#anybodyneedchange,” “#nohometraining,” “#atleasttheyleftatip,” “#workingwiththepublic.”
“It’s just U.S. currency, I’m allowed to use it. It’s not illegal, I’m not doing anything wrong,” Naulty said.
Naulty and his friends and family are asking for an apology. Beer 88 posted a rebuttal and said the post was just a joke.
“They said we didn’t have any home training. That was dirty. That was – one of their hashtags was #nohometraining,” Naulty’s friend said.
Beer 88 owner Yao Liu did apologize in part saying, “On that part, yes, I do apologize because, you know, I didn’t see it.”
Liu said she has received several threats, but the restaurant is standing their ground.
“I was going to delete it, then after all that they said, ‘You know what,’ we’re not backing down,” Liu said. “Because originally, we never mean anything bad to them.”
As of Wednesday morning, it appears that the restaurant’s Facebook page has been taken down or deleted.
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